Fish and Wildlife Disease Investigation and Surveillance

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are compounds with the potential to interfere with normal endocrine communication in organisms.

Evaluating the pathogenicity and replication of a novel aquareovirus that infects the endangered fountain darter, Etheostoma fonticola

Prevalence of novel, emerging hepatitis viruses in wild white suckers and their association with liver tumors in the Great Lakes region

Development of monitoring probes to assess water-quality using benthic riverine indicator communities: Fatty acid analyses of stream biofilms

Development of Deployable Multispectral Sensors for Monitoring

Title of Study Plan: Residual toxicity testing and chemical characterization of ballast water following treatment with NaOH, sparging with scrubbed marine diesel engine exhaust, and aeration

Molecular tools and methodologies are used designed and used for diverse applications. These applications can be used to assess questions of threatened and endangered species, population and conservation biology, ecological communities, microbial diversity, molecular epidemiology and genomics of non-model organisms among many others. Successful integration of these tools and technologies greatly...

Lyme disease is the most prevalent vector-borne disease in North America, with about 300,000 cases per year in the U.S. We are studying transmission of the spirochete that causes this disease among wild animals and the blacklegged tick vectors, to determine why Lyme disease is common in the northeast and northern Midwest but rare in the south, even though blacklegged ticks are present in all of...

The Challenge: The genomic revolution is giving wildlife biologists new tools to assess the role of wildlife in spreading diseases that affect human populations. Peptide arrays are a high throughput technology that gives unprecedented breadth and depth of information about the immune system. We are using peptide arrays to assess the immune responses of Chesapeake Bay waterfowl to avian influenza...

The Challenge: In an era when emerging infectious diseases are steadily increasing, human populations are exposed to virulent new pathogens. Insight into the human system can be gained from understanding the variety of immune adaptations of wildlife species. The vertebrate immune system is not static. Rather, it involves in response to the environment.

The Challenge: In eastern North America there is a viral disease called Eastern Equine Encephalitis, or EEE. This virus is transmitted among native bird species by the mosquito, Culiseta melanura, but does not cause disease in these passerine species. However, the virus is capable of causing severe disease or death in horses, some game bird species, humans and whooping cranes. In the fall of 1984...

This project seeks to improve our understanding of how domestic ducks move throughout the market chain in China and the role this may play in the amplification and spread of avian influenza viruses.